How to Care for a Christmas Cactus
A Christmas cactus is one of those iconic Christmas plants that pops up everywhere during the holidays. Native to Brazil, these plants are available in a variety of pretty colors including red, pink, lavender, peach, orange, and white. In the wild, they grow in the rain forest on tree branches as epiphytes, a plant that grows on another but is not parasitic. In your home, they can live for more than 100 years when cared for properly!
Follow these Christmas cactus care tips to make the most out of your pretty holiday plant.
How should I care for my Christmas cactus?
Give your plant bright indirect light. Water only when the surface feels dry to the touch. Don’t overwater, because Christmas cactus is a succulent that absolutely can’t tolerate soggy feet. If the flat stems get soft and mushy, you’re overwatering. If the stems look shriveled, you’re probably under-watering.
You can fertilize Christmas cactus with half-strength balanced houseplant food every month during the growing season from late winter to early spring, though it’s not entirely necessary. It’s also helpful to pinch back the stems after they’re done blooming in mid-winter in order to promote branching, which yields more flowers. It also keeps the plant looking neat and the stems from getting too heavy and breaking off.
Your Christmas cactus needs special requirements to bloom again.
Christmas cactus are “short day” plants, meaning they need 12 to 24 hours of uninterrupted darkness starting in September to bloom. Place your cactus in a room that’s not used in the evenings and protect it from any outside light sources such as a streetlight. Even a teeny-tiny amount of outside light can interrupt its day/night cycle and prevent blooming.
Why isn’t my Christmas cactus blooming?
Even though you’ve done everything right, there's a chance that your plant may not bloom because it could be another type of holiday cactus! Christmas cactus look incredibly similar to Thanksgiving cactus and Easter cactus, which are named for the holidays closest to their bloom times.
The way to tell them apart is to look at the flattened stems, which are essentially the “leaves” of these plants. Christmas cactus stems are more tear-dropped in shape with purplish-brown pollen-bearing anthers on the flowers. Thanksgiving cactus has saw-toothed stem edges with yellow pollen, and Easter cactus has more rounded stems with little bristles on the segments. But don't worry—no matter what kind you have, they all require the same care.
How dod I propagate a new Christmas cactus plant?
It’s as easy as can be! Simply pinch off a few stem cuttings that have several segments, let them dry out for a day, then poke the cut end into moist-potting soil (preferably cactus soil). You also can dip it into rooting hormone first, though that’s not an essential step. In a few weeks, tiny new leaf segments should appear.
